She had a double bogey on the par-4 16th, four birdies and two bogeys.
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Laura Davies had collected 16 of her 20 LPGA victories before this year’s major winners Brooke Henderson and Lydia Ko were even born, but the English veteran showed on Thursday she can still compete with the teenagers.
The 52-year-old Englishwoman was level with South Africa’s Paula Reto, Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, South Korean Kim Sei-Young and defending champion Lexi Thompson of the United States at Blythefield Country Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She missed a birdie putt on the 18th that could have put her into the playoff.
“Playing well last week definitely helps with the confidence coming into this week, but every week it can change”, Ko said. “I don’t have to rely on coaches and that sort of thing”.
The world number one has seven top 10 finishes in the 11 tournaments she has played in this year, and Henderson was full of praise for the Kiwi starlet.
“It was a pretty fantastic day on Sunday and.it has been a busy couple of days since then but I’ve just been enjoying it and I’m looking forward to this week”, the 18-year-old told Golf Channel with a beaming smile.
Henderson is two strokes back after putting her major championship celebrations on hold and getting back to work. “Saw that this morning scores were kind of low, so I knew I could do it, too”.
“I’ve been playing well recently, but I haven’t been holing any putts”, said Davies, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “I think next two days going to be quite similar I expect, so I think I’m just going to keep like aggressive playing like the last two days”. “But I’m happy to start with a 67”. “I started out not as well as I would have liked, 1 over for the front nine, but I made a lot of birdies on the back and go 4 under, so overall it was a pretty steady day”. The Golf Australia rookie squad member is now ranked 13th, having won twice on the main tour, and she is tied-13th in MI.
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Thompson won the Honda LPGA Thailand in February for her seventh LPGA Tour title.
